Passengers on-board a Malaysian Airlines flight en route to Kuala Lumpur that was forced to divert to Alice Springs have described the "hell" they endured on the plane.

Flight MH122 from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur was over the coast of Western Australia on Thursday night when technical difficulties forced it to divert to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

Pilots shut down one of the Airbus A330-300's engines for the flight back to Alice Springs.

Chin Kanani, the husband of a passenger on the flight, said his wife became panicked when she heard a banging mid-flight.

"She said she was on the loo when she started hearing loud banging noises from the right-hand side of the plane and that's when all it started," Kanani told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Friday.

"It was like hell this flight and they were told to be ready for an emergency landing."

Mohamad Nogheib, 17, was also on board and described hearing a "weird sound."

"We were on the brink of Australia we were about to cross into the sea and the plane suddenly turns around," he said.

"I was scared for my life, I'm not going to lie."

"The pilot landed on one engine only one of them was completely broken."

Passengers were put up in hotels by Malaysia Airlines on Thursday night as the airline organized replacement flights.

Malaysia Airlines said more information about the technical failure would be provided when it became available.